Carter Merklinghaus (formerly Anderson) is a 2018 Ph.D. graduate from the University of Washington, where she also received her MA in Sociology in 2015. She completed her BA in Sociology-Social Studies from WWU in 2014. Carter teaches SOC 201: The Self, Emotions, and Society at UW

Carter is interested in military service and life course outcomes with a focus on gender and substance abuse. She focuses primarily on social-psychological theories and approaches in order to study the effects of military service on the lives of servicemembers, which is the subject of her current dissertation research.